/ ‘KAH-shee-Ah /

I reflect on my life and see how many red seas have been split, how many miracles have taken place, and how God has (and many times did not) intervene for my greater good through prayers. I encourage you to think of the many times God intervened (or didn’t) in your life; you will find it tracing back to a prayer you have made or someone else made on your behalf.

Hagar calls him the “God of Seeing,” reflecting the profound friendship that Jesus embodies. This is the kind of friendship that Jesus has, one that would make him selflessly leave his throne to comfort someone like Hagar, a slave, a gentile, a nobody.

We all have a family origin story, trials and tribulations of some sort, and people who have shaped who we are for the needs that God knew our children would require. God gave us the strength (and courage) we required before we knew we needed it.

Disciplemakers are God's agents for his redeeming plan for creation. This means that we have more to hope for as we sit across the table from our disciples, children, peers or in a room of our fellow ministry members.

I am not saying it’s sinful to buy a dress or take a vacation here and there. But what I am saying is that my conviction leads me to understand that when I withhold tithe to God because of my fleshly desire to self-indulge in my wants, I cheat him out of what he deserves. I like to think that I am Able, but it turns out I play the role of being Cain.

In observing my own thoughts, I was made aware that God may refine us in suffering, but he also uses our blessings as a point of sanctification as well. My suffering gave me humility so that in my blessings I would be tested to see if I'd still humble myself before the Lord. I have found that these blissful years have refined me just as much as those past years of suffering.